Folding Mechanisms Of Two-dimensional Deployable Membrane For Spinning Solar Sail
- Paper number
IAC-07-C2.2.06
- Author
Mr. Yasutaka Satou, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Coauthor
Prof. Hiroshi Furuya, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Year
2007
- Abstract
We develop a folding mechanisms for two-dimensional deployable solar sail membranes. The solar sails are developed by several research groups, and the folding technique of very large thin membrane in the ground environment is one of the significant technical issues to realize the deployable membrane. The spinning solar sail is one of the concept to deploy the two-dimensional membrane using centrifugal force, and the rotationally skew fold proposed by the authors is one of the solutions to fold ideally the membrane two-dimensionally in the space environment. However, to manufacture the two-dimensional deployable membrane in the ground environment, a simultaneous folding, i.s. two-dimensionally wrapping mechanism is requested. Therefore, we develop a folding mechanism of the two-dimensional membrane under the concept of wrapping wheel with tensile force applied by tether cables. Wrapping characteristics of the two-dimensional membrane are investigated for several tensile force conditions and configurations of tether cables. Also, we investigated the folding characteristics using the concept of the ideal rotationally skew fold. Finally we demonstrate the folding mechanisms for solar sail membrane with 10m diameter to investigate the feasibility of the mechanisms.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-C2.2.06.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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